Rating  - Best feature/price ratio on the market!
After owning the device for a month now, here's my quick rundown of the positive and negative aspects of the phone.
Pros (in order of importance):
+ Excelent feature vs. price ratio. You'll be hard pressed to find another mobile device offering the same feature set, smartphone capabilities, and strong community following, for the same price. This is arguably the best bang for your buck smartphone on the market right now. After researching for quite a while before purchasing, this was a big deal-maker for me.
+ Slim, stylish, classic candybar design and quality construction. The phone feels sturdy and the noticeable weight provides confidence it's not going to break if you happen to drop it accidentally (I can personally attest to this).
+ High-quality screen. Sure, it's a bit on the small size compared to other Nokia offerings, but the QVGA resolution and 16M color display more than make up for it. You'll have a hard time watching full-length movies on it because of the size, but the pictures really look great and the UI is a pleasure to look at, especially with your choice of 3rd-party themes.
+ Excelent performance. Plenty of CPU power and RAM to run several resource intensive games and application, at the same time.
+ Symbian OS 9.2. This is a tried and tested smartphone OS. You just can't beat the huge application library available on the platform. Coupled with the performance bit above, the OS just flies through anything you run. Very responsive and stable.
Now, onto to the negatives.
Cons (in order of annoyance):
- Weak battery. If you plan on using any of the features aside plain voice calls, get used to carrying the charger with you at all times. The battery is seriously underpowered, and a few hours worth of WiFi (for VoIP calls and light web browsing) on a full charge will last you--at most--24 hours. And don't even think about turning on Bluetooth for your wireless headset, since it will drain a full charged battery in about 5 hours--no joke. This is really a shame and it's one of the most frustrating aspects of the phone.
- Application certificate: mandatory. The S60 3rd Edition Symbian OS makes a requisite that all installed applications must be signed with a proper certificate. This reduces the amount of software you can install on the phone by a large amount, since most freeware or small apps you might run into are usually unsigned. The only way I have found to remove this "feature" is to effectively hack your phone, with the risk of corrupting your system. Thankfully, all went well and I'm able to install all I want now, but this security measure is simply too restrictive for the end user. If you want to take advantage of the best aspect Symbian has going for it, get ready to perform this procedure.
- Bugs in the current firmware. Although Nokia regularly updates the firmware of most of its lineup, it has recently set all their efforts on their flagship N series devices. The latest E51 firmware (200.34.36) was released on April 24, 2008, and has some major issues with the SIP client and browser, yet no update is in near sight.
- The following are not so much of an annoyance, as me nitpicking. The only feature missing from the phone that's not a gimmick (touchscreen, accelerometer, etc.) and would come in handy, especially in business oriented devices like the E series, is A-GPS. But since this would certainly drive the price way up, I think it compensates quite well despite not having this feature. The other feature gripes, like no flash or autofocus on camera, would really be pushing it, since this is not a camera phone, but it's still worth mentioning. One other small thing, is that the phone gets considerably warm during prolonged usage (15min+), be it WiFi, voice calls, video playback, etc. You can still hold it in your hand just fine, but I got worried the first time I noticed it. It's no big deal, really, once you get used to it.
In summary, the one thing that soures up the experience of using this phone is the battery. For that fact, I'll have to give it 4/5 stars, but I'm completely satisfied with my purchase, and will surely consider another Nokia smartphone in the future.
Rating  - E51
Good quality phone. Fast, good battery time. PDA features are great. Camera okay. Nice size. Reception is great. WiFi is worth it.
Would reccommend this phone.
Rating - Great phone, minor problems
This is a great phone! Usable, attractive and open to all sorts of enhancements.
Battery life is great.
Very usable, responsive and fun to use.
Great OS, stable and usable.
Minor problems are: You can't change the writing language easily, and it gets hot rather fast...
Great buy, anyway.
Rating - Now that is a great phone!
I can not recall any recent experience that came even close to the one I recently had. Having bought two Nokia E51 cell phones, one had a problem (a key fell off) after 4 days from the purchase date and Amazon response to my inquiry was very professional and flawless. Nokia, which I contacted first wanted me to ship them the phone, take a look at it, and decide whether they will repair it under warranty or not!!??
Amazon shipped me a new one, provided a return label for the problematic phone and that was it. Loved it!!!!
The phone is great, has everything I missed having after switching to a different brand a couple of years ago. Then there is the S60 operating system and wifi capabilities, plus a lot of available software out there.
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Customer Reviews for Nokia,002C9N1,758478013397,0758478013397,B000W3T39Y, |
